Hood River County Education Foundation (HRCEF) set another new record for sending funds into classrooms in the Hood River County School District with their 2022 Impact Teaching Grants. Over $41,000 was awarded to 40 educators representing most of the schools in the district.
HRCEF has been providing grants to educators for more than 25 years.Grants will provide everything from new robots for the Fab Bus (a mobile computer lab and “maker space” that provides lessons in computer programming, engineering & robotics to elementary students at every school), to a new telescope at Hood River Middle School for night time “star parties” to supplement classroom instruction in Earth Science.
Scroll down to learn about the 2022 Impact Teaching Grants from our applicants in their own words or click on the link skip to a specific school.
Impact Teaching Grants are funded entirely by members of the Hood River County Community. If you would like to help support the Impact Teaching Grants program, please click on the button below.
Cascade Locks Elementary School
Original Instructions, an arts integrated after school program exploring new Shared History, Tribal History statewide Native American curriculum, Sheri Holloway
An opportunity to deeply explore the new curriculum Shared History Tribal History through the lens of the after school programming. Teaching Artists Amy Gray and collaborators will connect STEAM inspired lessons to the recently adopted Native American curriculum, to inspire students to think deeply and meaningfully in relationship to the place we live and the people who have lived on these lands for time immemorial.
Parkdale Elementary School
Hands-On Math Manipulatives, Holly Lavoie, Paula Lindquist, Celia Newton
The grant money requested will provide teachers with supplies to make abstract math concepts more understandable. These supplies will be used to teach concepts such as counting, the four operations, time, money, and fractions.
Handwriting without Tears, Paula Lindquist, Kathleen Welland, Jill Spaulding, Jenay Coval, Madeline Salminen
This grant will allow Parkdale Kindergarten and First Grade to continue implementing Handwriting Without Tears as a way to improve students’ writing fluency. The lessons use wooden manipulatives, chalkboards/water/sponges, songs and online practice for a comprehensive and age-appropriate way to teach handwriting.
Foundational Reading Development, Marika Smith
The science of reading indicates that in order for a person to become proficient in reading they must master decoding skills + linguistic comprehension in order to read. These materials covered by this grant will allow my students the opportunity to develop their phonological awareness and grapheme awareness. These lessons will be taught daily with teacher modeling and scaffolded support. Students will improve their reading, spelling and writing as they learn to hear the sounds in words.Eventually transferring their skills to decodable readers.
All Elementary Schools
Robotics across the District — VEX FUN, Sally Anderson
VEX Robotics – building the vision from Elementary to High School – the STEM FAB bus is rolling and delivering 5 hours of engaging STEM curriculum to ALL elementary classrooms. The Middle School and High School are building a VEX robots infrastructure. VEX robots in the elementary schools will build a continuum of K-12 VEX programming and prepare our younger learners to be prepared for the future using a common foundation.
Hood River Middle School
Goal Ball for All!, Stacy Claus
Goal Ball is a team sport for the visually impaired. This grant will purchase Goal Ball equipment for middle school students. Teaching Goal Ball to the general ed population addresses two primary PE standards: developing competency in a variety of motor skills and movement patterns, and recognizing the value of physical activity for health, enjoyment, challenge, and self-expression for ALL types of learners.
Podcast Equipment, Kyla Louis, Josh Hobson
Podcasting is a popular format for conveying information and storytelling. It allows student voices to be heard and provides students with a wider audience for their work. Social Studies and Language Arts have several standards linked to speaking and listening which can be satisfied by podcasting. This grant will purchase equipment to help all 8th graders at HRMS (around 180) to create podcasts and videos 2-5 times per year.
Bringing the Universe Home, Adam Smith
Home telescope use has advanced tremendously in the last several years with technology facilitating the ability to locate amazing objects with ease. Not only does this connect with a variety of NGSS standards, it also provides an exciting way to foster the broader HRMS community by creating a potential for astronomy family nights. HRMS science teachers will purchase a high quality telescope for use with our curriculum in addition to its primary role of hosting star parties.
Community Read Pilot Project, Ann McDonald, Amy Wheeler
We will have a small committee choose a good middle school community book for all staff/students at HRMS to read. We will then purchase and dsitribute the book to students and staff, and create a timeline of activities/events centered around this book. Having all staff and students read the same book and participate in discussions and activities around that book will help to promote a sense of community in HRMS, which is needed more than ever after missing that due to distance learning.
Break Space for Classrooms, Maureen Wiseman, Grace Parson, Connor Ward
Returning from online learning has proved to be challenging for students emotionally and academically. Their endurance in the classroom has been affected significantly. We have noticed more and more students needing to take breaks and want to normalize this for all kids. This grant will provide supplies for each classroom at HRMS to have a small “break space” where students can use fidgets for self-regulation.
Wy’East Middle School
Diverse Abilities-Inclusive All Terrain Bike Project, Jeanne Welch, Erin Bertram, Karen Holt, Tom Frojen, Ashlie Sorestad, Zachary Kayser, Robert Fusilli, Joshua Padgett
Modern bike technology will open new trails to inclusive, safe, and healthy participation in school and community bike programs. Adapted bikes allow students with diverse abilities to develop bike confidence, improve motor and recreational skills, and gain the social freedom to bike alongside their peers. WY ‘east Middle School teaches mountain biking in all PE grade levels, offers a bike elective, and a Bike Club. Mid-Valley offers a 5th grade bike unit. These schools provide mountain bikes to most students. WY ‘east and HRVHS have developed mountain bike tracks. Students with diverse abilities deserve full inclusion and belonging in school bike activities. This grant will purchase three size adjustable, recumbent, all terrain Terra Trikes.
Ripple Effect, Ashlie Sorestad
An immersive experience that’s equitable for all cre8 students at Wy’east middle School,
This three day arts integration residency is place-based, introduces ideas of re-indiginization and Forest Therapy and supports the development of a moral imagination concerning our connections with nature through art making. With components of Social Emotional Learning and using principles of Trauma Informed Practice, practitioners will lead students in student-led heart-centered experiments in drawing, painting and printmaking culminating in a class wide act of wild generosity as we share and give away prints of what we make, to each other.
Hood River & Wy’East Middle Schools
VEX IQ Robotics, David Scharfenberg, Patrick Getches
Some of the fastest-growing job sectors are robotics, both hardware and software. Given that HRVHS is gearing up its CTE programs to better prepare students for this, we are seeking to feed that “pipeline” by exposing as many of them as possible to these career fields. The addition of these kits will enable both of us at HRMS and WEMS to work with students to explore both the hardware and software solutions to various robotics problems.
Hood River Valley High School
Advanced Math Tool Kit, Areli Lica, Doug Beardsley
The AVID program provides basic school supplies, except scientific and graphing calculators that these students require. This grant will provide adequate calculators to the students in the Advancement Via Individual Determination program. The calculators would be checked out to first-generation college-bound students. These students are required to take these classes for college readiness, but many cannot afford this expensive tool.
Fabric for Sewing, Matthew Gerlick
This money will go to buy materials that would allow students to make higher quality items, challenge their skill levels and craft, and give them more opportunities to learn about good design and materials use. When student know how to make things on their own, they are empowered. When students know how things are made, they are more appreciative of the world and people around them who make these items. When students make their own clothes and sewn items they become designers and creators. They learn how to fix things, to problem solve, and invent. Students will learn how to create their own design , make their own patterns and sew them all together.
Good Video Sound, Shawn Meyle
Good audio is very important for creating good video. It has been said that people will forgive bad video, but they will never forgive bad sound. Even though video is considered a primarily visual medium, much of the storytelling and emotional resonance of a script is conveyed through sound. These mics will help my students produce more professional videos that they can get excited about and thus increase their excitement and passion towards the subject.
Engineering the Internet of Things with Arduino, John Trimble
This project will empower students to design, build, and code electronic devices that sense and control the physical world through the Internet of Things (IoT) by using Arduino micro-controllers. Students will explore with connected devices that use sensors, automation, protocols, and graphing to collect and analyze real-world data through a digital IoT interface. The ultimate goal is for students to use these tools to invent and engineer devices that can automate problems and simplify tasks in daily life.
Digital Balancing for Experiential Learning, Kevin Haspela, Tegner Weiseth
To move students from abstract calculation of chemical properties to truly experiencing the excitement of reaction and the prediction of experimental results, accurate measurement of mass is essential. Digital balances are the standard for any application of chemistry in research and industry these days and the cost of these tools has decreased dramatically over the past few years. Putting these tools in students’ hands allows them to learn chemistry by experiencing these processes directly and empowers them to take a more active role in their own learning.
